Promise The Stars
by FinnickOdair-Will-Live-Forever
Summary: Ever since she was a little girl, Annabeth has dreamed of visiting Greece. The sun, the sea, the architecture...And apparently, Percy Jackson. Can these two polar opposites really manage a summer fling? Or could it be something more? AU.
1. Chapter 1

**I'm not sure if there's any other fics like this or not, so I don't have any chapters prewritten. I'm hoping that you guys enjoy this, it's just one of those ideas that wouldn't leave me alone. Also, I used to write for Percy Jackson under the pen name AllHailPercyJackson, in case any of you were wondering what happened to me. (You probably weren't.)**

**I don't own the Percy Jackson Series.**

**Annabeth:**

Greece has always been a dream of mine, but one of those far-off ones that you can never quite grasp. It would sing to me in my sleep, calling me to the land of ancient power and magic. I've wanted to go there ever since I was a little girl- Greek mythology has always fascinated me. And oh, the architecture! It's any architecture major's dream, I'm sure. I dream of going there every time I close my eyes, and now it's finally going to happen.

Nothing could have prepared me for what, or who, I would find there.

…

"When does our flight leave?"

Thalia Grace, my best friend since I was seven and she was eight, looked sleepy-eyed as she gazed across the line to the baggage counter. She wore a white hoodie pulled tightly across her black t-shirt clad shoulders and ripped blue skinny jeans. She nursed a paper cup of coffee in one hand, her fourth since waking up an hour ago, and the handles of her suitcases in the other.

"Yeah. This coffee tastes like shit." Piper Mclean had joined our clan of two at the age of fourteen when she transferred from a school in North Carolina. She had instantly made an impression on us by beating the crap out of a girl named Drew that had had it coming to her for quite some time. She wore black leggings and old red and white checked shirt that belonged to her father, ever comfortable in times of travel.

"Um." I checked my watch. "Three hours."

"So why are we hear so early?" Thalia groaned. She hadn't exactly been a fan of the five o'clock wake up call.

"I agree. We only have to be here, like, one hour in advance. Right?" Piper asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

"I'm sorry! I didn't want to be late!" I apologized, dropping my suitcases to hold my hands up in mock surrender. The two girls tried to glare at me, but just ended up cracking smiles instead. They knew how I excited I was, and that that was a rare thing for me.

"Whatever. There had better be some hot guys there." Thalia grumbled. In response, Piper snorted and I rolled my eyes.

"What?!" She narrowed her eyes at us threateningly. The thing about Thalia was that she didn't exactly let people in, especially guys. That was fair enough, but it meant that if she fell for someone and it didn't work out then she was crushed. Three months ago she had broken up with cheating boyfriend and trashed his car, and Piper and I had been there for her through all of it. Except, now she was at the stage where all she did was complain about what an ass he was.

"Seriously? You're still, like, obsessed with Will Solace." Piper laughed.

"He's a dick." Thalia rolled her eyes. We knew that in the next few weeks she'd drop out of this stage, have to be convinced not to burn his house down, and then be completely chill about it.

"What about you?" I smirked, turning to Piper. "Looking for something? We're there for the whole summer."

"Maybe. It all depends on who I meet." Piper said honestly, and shrugged her shoulders.

"We all know _exactly _what you're looking for, Annabeth." Thalia grinned as the line finally started to move forward.

"Architecture, architecture, and then more architecture!" Piper finished, high-fiving Thalia.

It was true. I'd been so excited to go, and I had a right to be. Saving had been a bitch- eight months ago I had started waitressing. Then bartending in the evenings, and working at a harden centre on a Saturday, and doing some writing for an online column that paid as if I was sixteen and taking my first job. But we had all agreed that it would be worth it, if only to be able to relax in the sun after our first year of college. Thalia had travelled during her gap year before attending the University of San Francisco with me and Piper, but only through America. This was different, and I was raring to go.

…

If you've never been on a fourteen hour plane ride with Thalia Grace, then you can count yourself as lucky. She'd be restless even without ADHD and a gallon of coffee in her system. She was bouncing up and down in her seat the entire time, and I had a serious conversation with Piper about knocking her unconscious or strapping her to the plane wing.

"How much longer?" Had been her questions of choice. The eighty third time she asked, and yes I counted, I was about to scream when I looked out of the window and down onto Greece. It had been even more beautiful than I had ever imagined. Even from a thousand feet above it, the ocean was a beautiful clear shade of turquoise that created butterflies in my stomach. The buildings far below us looked idyllic, and suddenly all I had wanted to do was be on the ground.

It was nine o'clock in the morning when we finally touched ground. We breezed through security, and only lost Thalia once. We found her shortly afterwards, being yelled at in rapid Greek by a security guard for ridding the baggage carousel. She fired off insults in fluent Greek right back at him, and Piper dragged away before the situation could escalate even further.

Stepping outside was like stepping over a milestone. I had finally done it- I had made it to Greece. After scrounging and saving and learning the language, I was here. For _three months._

It was pre-summer in Athens, but the heat still hit you like a tidal wave.

"This is something I could really get used to." Piper inhaled deeply.

"Come on. Let's just get the car and go." Thalia was already jetlagged, by the looks of things.

"Of course. _Now _you're tired." I sighed, but I couldn't be annoyed at her for more than ten seconds in a place like this.

However, the rental place was where he had our first disagreement.

"I'm not fucking driving that thing." Piper hissed, pointing at our car in anger.

"This is a terrible mix-up." Thalia groaned, rubbing at her eyes.

"It could be worse." I said light-heartedly. Instead of a simple white Honda, we had somehow ended up with a luminous green Vauxhall that looked older than I was.

"I could also be _better_." Piper snapped.

"Come on, now. You have to drive it. Said you would." I bumped her lightly with my shoulder, and shot me a viscous glare.

"I hate you."

…

It took a while to convince her, but eventually Piper drove us the half hour to small town we were staying in. It was the typical hilly Greek town filled with cobblestone roads and whitewashed buildings on top of one another. From the house we would be staying in I could see the ocean and a beautiful long pier, which made me giddy with excitement.

"We're only a short drive away from the Parthenon." I was buzzing, on top of the world.

"Shut up!" Thalia and Piper snapped simultaneously.

Maybe I had been talking too much.

The family we were to stay with were lovely. They spoke good English, even when we tried to speak to them in Greek. They wanted to know that we were well fed, and then sent us up to our rooms to sleep off the jetlag.

"This is amazing." Piper gasped when we walked into the room we would be sharing. The house was small, but it was charming. We were already in love with it.

"Right?" Thalia grinned, and claimed the bed nearest the wall. Piper claimed the twin bed opposite, leaving me to the large wooden window seat covered in a futon. When I laid down, it was surprisingly comfortable and the duvet was feather light and comforting. The walls of our room were white, and a painting of a quaint chapel hung from the wall above Thalia and Piper's beds. We were on top of the biggest hill in the town, so I could easily see the pier from the window. A boy stood hauling nets, and a small fishing boat was just heading out.

There was a dark wooden wardrobe opposite the other girl's beds, next to a vanity mirror that had clearly been set up especially for us.

"This place is beautiful." Piper murmured as she burrowed into the covers of her bed, fully clothed. "Let's never leave."

"Mm…" I mumbled, already falling asleep. "I won't mind…spending…three months…"

I never even finished my sentence.


	2. Chapter 2

**I don't own the Percy Jackson series.**

**Percy:**

The sun in Greece was uncomfortable to work in, but it was one of my stepdad's conditions if I was to stay with him this summer. Four times a week at six thirty I would head out in his fishing boat for a few hours, and then haul in the nets that I usually half-filled with different fish. Then I would go and study, before heading back to help around the house.

Greece is a truly beautiful place. The sun reflects of the water, making it look like a shimmering fire. When it sets in the evening, it sets the sky a light as well. I've never seen water so clear in my life, and I'm so glad that I get to spend my summer here.

You see, I'm a marine biology major at Cornell in New York. It's a great school and I get to stay near my mom, but there's not really much access to sea life. We mainly work off of textbooks, so I jumped at the chance to apply for a summer apprenticeship in Greece. I'd spent hours researching it, and it involved shadowing one of the best marine biologists in the country and looking into species of marine life that I'd never even heard of.

I'd lived in this village for ten years, before my mother and I moved to New York. She was from there originally, and after she and my dad got divorced we moved away. They were on good terms, and I'd visited every summer since. Now I had a cute baby brother called Alix and an irritating stepbrother, Triton. Getting to the lab from here only took twenty minutes, and putting up with Triton was worth it to see all the people that had known me as a child.

I slung the two nets of fish over my back, ignoring the feeling of the scales slapping against my bare back. I made my way back down the pier and towards the cobblestone roads, which was more hill than flat ground.

"Good morning, Perseus." An elderly lady nodded at me from a rocking chair perched just off of her doorstep.

"Morning, Mrs Kanelos." I nodded to her and grinned as I passed by. "Have a nice day."

These people knew me better than I knew myself. As a child, I was passed around to all the women so that they could coo over me. The men had helped teach me to fish. It was the same for every child in this village. I spoke perfect Greek, but the people of the village went out of their way to make me feel comfortable by speaking to me in English as much as possible. We were like a family, and most people would never leave their life here. We were hard workers, and everybody knew everything about each other.

"Perseus." One of my father's good friends stuck their head out of a window and smiled warmly at me.

"Dorian, _Καλημέρα._" I said, meaning 'good morning'.

"I hear the Maheras family has taken in some students, similar to your age." He said, reaching his hand out to shake mine.

"Really? I didn't know that, I've only been here a few days myself." I explained. The Maheras family were one of the kindest and oldest lines in the village. They had been around for centuries, and I had spent a lot of time with them as a child.

"Hm, yes. I hear your homecoming party is soon. How long are you with us for, Perseus?"

"The whole summer this time, Dorian. Until the middle of September."

"Good." He smiled. "It will be nice to have you around. You had better get along now, son."

I waved one last time and carried on up the road. The fish market was only ten minutes from the pier, though lugging fish made it feel longer than that. You could fetch a good price for most fish, though we usually shipped the ones we caught off to bigger chains.

"Καλημέρα!" I greeted the merchant with a smile. After bartering for a while, we agreed on a price and I went on my way again with a few remaining fish for our dinner.

The house I grew up in was at the top of one of the steepest hills in the village. It wasn't huge, it wasn't fancy, but I didn't care. It was home.

"I'm back!" I called once I had dropped the nets outside. Being at the very top of the hill meant that we had our own mini tiled plaza outside, with amazing views and the first fishing boat my dad had ever bought resting outside.

"I'm in the kitchen!"

A few years after my parents' divorce, my father Poseidon had married Amphitrite. She had lived in the village for her whole life and had been a good friend to my father during the divorce process. Our relationship was strained sometimes, but she tried hard with me and I respected the fact that she didn't take anybody's shit.

"Hey, Amphi." I kissed her on both cheeks in greeting. "What are you up to?"

Her dark black hair was tied back away from her face, and her green eyes gleamed in determination. She wore a white apron over her jeans and blouse.

"Cooking." She replied in a thick Greek accent. "For your homecoming party tomorrow."

She was rolling a salmon through flour and some sort of herb, and the smell of baking bread filled the air.

"Need a hand?" I asked, but she only raised an eyebrow at me.

"You? In the kitchen? No. Put those fish in the fridge and go wash your hands." She instructed. I had learnt a long time ago that arguing with Amphitrite was like signing your own death warrant. So, I did as she said.

"Why do I need a homecoming party?" I asked as I opened the fridge. "I arrived three days ago, and I'm leaving again in September."

"Percy, you should not complain about people wishing to see you. We are all very happy to have you with us for more than a few week, and we wish to show you how much we care." Amphitrite explained, barely looking up from the fish.

"Is there anything you need me to do?" I asked as I ran my hands under the cold water tap.

"No, I think you are alright for now. I will call you if I need anything."

"Okay, Amphi." I started to make my way towards the staircase.

"Percy?"

I stopped and turned back towards her.

"I am glad to have you back." She smiled warmly at me. I grinned back, before climbing up the flight of stairs. My bedroom was right at the end of the upstairs hall, overlooking the fields just beyond the village. When I had arrived, I had found it exactly how I had left it. My dark blue sheets were folded neatly over my mattress, my wardrobe was exploding with clothes and shoes, and my desk was still decorated with different shells. This time, however, there was an intruder in my bedroom.

"Hey."

Jason Grace had been living in the village for two years now. His mother had moved here with him, and he had stayed after she passed away a year ago. That was all I knew- he had never told me where he came from.

"What are you doing in here?" I asked wearily. Usually, he wanted to play a game of football or go fishing. I had suggested swimming one time, and he had looked at me like I'd grown three heads.

"Bored." Jason shrugged. He was laying on my bed, tossing and catching a tennis ball. "Wanna play tennis?"

"It's one hundred and twenty degrees outside." I snorted. "No, I don't want to play tennis."

"Fine." He shrugged and sat up. "I'll go find Luke and Calypso then."

Luke Castellan was the third musketeer in our trio. He has lived here his whole life and so had Calypso, his girlfriend. I had dated her briefly one summer after my sophomore year, but she had always wanted Luke. It didn't really bother me, and we were good friends now.

"You do that." I clapped him on the shoulder as he walked past me.

"I will. See you tomorrow, at your party. I hear the Maheras family have some girls staying with them." Jason stopped at the doorway. "They could be interesting."

"How come everyone has heard this but me?" I frowned.

"Dunno." Jason shrugged, and then he was gone.


	3. Chapter 3

**I don't own the Percy Jackson series.**

**Annabeth**

Waking up in Greece had always been something I'd fantasized about. The sunlight would tease me awake, the cool breeze coming through the window would lightly rustle the sheets around me. I'd sigh and stretch and feel content, like nothing on the planet could be better.

What happened was absolutely nothing like my dream.

The heat was so intense that it woke me up a minute before seven am hit the clock on my phone. I was too tired to get up, yet too hot to stay lying there. I inwardly groaned for a few moments before groggily pulling myself out of bed. Piper and Thalia still slept like babies- a wrecking ball demolishing the house wouldn't wake those two up unless it hit somewhere after three in the afternoon. Now I'm naturally an early riser, but the jetlag had really taken it out of me and that morning I just did not want to move.

Reluctantly I changed out of my tank top and pyjama shorts into light blue jean shorts and a light grey t-shirt. Even this early in the morning the sun was intense, so I pulled on my Yankees cap as I slipped my feet into my blue flip-flops. I thought about waking Piper and Thalia but decided that I liked my head attached to my neck, so I made my way downstairs without even giving them a second glance.

"Good morning." I smiled warmly at Κυρία Maheras. I had learnt in the first few weeks of Greek lessons that 'Κυρία' was the go-to title for Greek women, like 'Mrs' or 'Ms'.

"Annabeth." She smiled warmly at me, her accent making my name sound ancient. "Please, sit with the others."

I smiled at her again before making my way outside. The Maheras family might not have been big by Greek standards, but it was by my own. Κυρία Maheras was at least eighty years old and lived with her daughter Dianthe and her two sons Gabriel and Herodotos, aged seventeen and fifteen respectively, along with their father Nikolas. Κυρία Maheras also had her son Pamphilos, his wife Gia, their son Kyros who was twenty five, their twin daughters Hanna and Isis who were both twenty two and their husbands Leandros and Esdras living there. Her youngest son Henoch, who was thirty two, lived there as well, but he had not been there when we had arrived yesterday. She had another son, Aeton, but he lived with his family in a different house in the village and only dropped by a few times a week.

They were yelling at each other in rapid Greek when I approached the table on the outside terrace, and I could pick up a few words that early in the morning. They switched to English when they saw me approaching, and Isis patted the empty chair next to her invitingly. Almost all of them looked typically Greek- olive skin, dark eyes and dark hair. The only differences were Gabriel with her blonde hair and Hanna with her blue eyes.

"Good morning, Annabeth." A man I didn't recognize smiled at me. "I am Henoch. We have not met yet."

"It's a pleasure." I said, extending my hand to shake his own. The table was almost collapsing under the weight of all the food. Different types of meat- sausages, bacon, black pudding- were sizzling in their dishes. There were three different bowls of fruit, some containing things I had only seen pictures of. There were loaves of bread everywhere I looked along with an assortment of vegetables, beans, cereal, coffee and fruit juice.

"Please, dig in." Κυρία Maheras instructed as she placed the last plate, a stack of pancakes, on the table.

"I will be back in just a moment." She said, and disappeared into the house again.

"Hanna, do you really need that much food?" Pamphilos frowned at his daughter as she buried her plate under a mountain of food.

"I am eating for two!" She protested, rubbing her pregnant stomach. Pamphilos rolled his eyes as his wife laughed, resting a hand on his arm.

I liked the Greek ways. Family was important to them and they were tough. I liked being around these people and to see how different their lives were to my own.

"Annabeth, you must eat!" Dianthe called from the other end of the table.

"Oh, I will." I promised, eyeing the bacon. I poured myself a glass of arrange juice and helped myself to a slice of toast and a bacon rasher. I turned around at the sound of rapid French muttering. Before I even saw I knew that I would be Piper, prattling off a list of colourful French cuss words.

"Make some room!" Κυρία Maheras ordered. Thalia ended up three seats to the left of me next to Gabriel and Henoch, where Piper end up diagonally opposite to me next to Gia and Kyros. The two of them did _not _look happy at the wake-up call- they were already pouring cups of coffee big enough to swim in.

"What do you ladies have planned for today?" Gia asked. Everybody in the Maheras family was warm and friendly, and she sounded like she genuinely wanted to know instead of just making polite conversation.

"We're going to explore around the village a bit." I explained after swallowing my bacon. It was delicious, better than any my dad had ever made.

"I would be happy to show you around later." Henoch offered.

"That would be great, thank you." I smiled at him. I shot Thalia a look, and she forced a smile.

"Thanks." She said, before going back to drowning herself in coffee.

"There is a party tonight on the beach." Κυρία Maheras said from her seat at the head of the table. "A boy who grew up here has returned for the summer. He is a lovely boy, it would be so wonderful if you three ladies could come."

"We would love to." Piper had turned her attention from coffee to a bagel and fried mushroom.

"Wonderful." Κυρία Maheras beamed before tucking into her own plateful. The conversation flowed throughout breakfast, and I found out more about the Maheras family. I had known already that they, like many other families in the village, were fishermen, but I found out from Pamphilos that it had begun almost two hundred years ago when Barnabas Maheras had purchases a row boat with the money he had been saving for two years and started to fish for balades, a tasty type of fish that was very popular amongst the Greeks. From there their fishing trade had branched out, and all of the Maheras men had been fishermen except for Aeton, who worked in the city as a translator, and Henoch who gave up fishing to become an office worker to pay his ex-wife and two children's expenses.

"So do you think we could go out in a boat sometime?" Thalia asked. One hour and four cups of coffee and been and gone since she'd been awoken and she had finally started to perk up.

"Of course!" Isis laughed. "You can never go far in _Hellas _without finding a friendly sailor to take you for a boat ride. There are many in this village who would do that for you."

"Great." Piper grinned. "I'd love to see the waters. They just look so beautiful from the bedroom window."

"Vαί, they are a thing of true beauty. We are lucky to live in a place like this." Dianthe sighed happily.

I looked out across the waters and couldn't stop the smile from spreading across my face. It seemed like all I had done since I arrived was smile, and for good reason too.

"If you are all finished," Henoch pulled me away from my thoughts. "The village waits for no one. We can explore now."


End file.
